Alan Cheusehttp://wcbe.org
enBook Review: 'Voices In The Night' http://wcbe.org/post/book-review-voices-night
<div class="fullattribution">Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.<img src="http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Book+Review%3A+%27Voices+In+The+Night%27+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDA5MTYwMDQ1MDEzMzE1ODcyMjRmY2FlMA004)"/></div><p>Transcript <p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>There's a new collection of short stories by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Steven Millhauser.Tue, 14 Apr 2015 22:21:00 +0000Alan Cheuse72929 at http://wcbe.orgBook Review: Jo Nesbo, 'Blood On Snow'http://wcbe.org/post/book-review-jo-nesbo-blood-snow
<div class="fullattribution">Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.<img src="http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Book+Review%3A+Jo+Nesbo%2C+%27Blood+On+Snow%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDA4NDQ1MjMzMDEzMjA3NzExMTA5OTU5Yw004)"/></div><p>Mon, 06 Apr 2015 20:36:00 +0000Alan Cheuse72540 at http://wcbe.orgBook Review: 'Satin Island' By Tom McCarthyhttp://wcbe.org/post/book-review-satin-island-tom-mccarthy
<div class="fullattribution">Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.<img src="http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Book+Review%3A+%27Satin+Island%27+By+Tom+McCarthy&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDA2NzQwOTg1MDEyOTc4NzI2MzJmNmZlZA001)"/></div><p>Transcript <p>KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: <p>Now, "Satin Island." It's the title of the new book by Tom McCarthy, the acclaimed experimental novelist.Fri, 27 Feb 2015 21:44:00 +0000Alan Cheuse70676 at http://wcbe.orgBook Review: Ross Ritchell's 'The Knife'http://wcbe.org/post/book-review-ross-ritchells-knife
<div class="fullattribution">Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.<img src="http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Book+Review%3A+Ross+Ritchell%27s+%27The+Knife%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDA4NjIwNTkwMDEzMjI4NDY0MjY4ZTBlNA004)"/></div><p>Transcript <p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>Last year, the National Book Award went to Phil Klay, a writer who used his experience as a veteran in his fiction. Well, now a new writer, also a veteran, is giving Klay a run for his money.Mon, 23 Feb 2015 21:56:00 +0000Alan Cheuse70438 at http://wcbe.orgBook Review: 'The Evening Chorus'http://wcbe.org/post/book-review-evening-chorus
<div class="fullattribution">Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.<img src="http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Book+Review%3A+%27The+Evening+Chorus%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDA1MjI2NzUxMDEyNzQyMTY5MjQ2YzkwNA004)"/></div><p>Transcript <p>KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: <p>If you like dark and lyrical love stories, Alan Cheuse has a suggestion for you. It's a novel by the Canadian writer Helen Humphreys, set during World War II and its aftermath.Mon, 16 Feb 2015 21:00:00 +0000Alan Cheuse70101 at http://wcbe.orgJoyce Carol Oates Wades Into Troubled Waters With 'The Sacrifice'http://wcbe.org/post/book-review-sacrifice-joyce-carol-oates
With great energy and a cold eye for contemporary American race relations, here comes Joyce Carol Oates with a new novel that shows off her muck-raking credentials. <em>The Sacrifice </em>faces squarely an incident that took place in upstate New York nearly thirty years ago in which a young black girl named Tawana Brawley claimed that a group of white males, mostly police officers, kidnapped her and gang-raped her over a number of days.<p>A young minister named Al Sharpton got his first taste of national attention defending Brawley.Fri, 26 Dec 2014 21:26:00 +0000Alan Cheuse67465 at http://wcbe.orgJoyce Carol Oates Wades Into Troubled Waters With 'The Sacrifice'Book Review: 'A Map Of Betrayal'http://wcbe.org/post/book-review-map-betrayal
<div class="fullattribution">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.<img src="http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Book+Review%3A+%27A+Map+Of+Betrayal%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDA0NjU0OTYzMDEyNjQwMTMxMDAxMDc1ZA004)"/></div><p>Transcript <p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>Most spy thrillers are about coldhearted people betraying one nation for another. But a new novel from Ha Jin was inspired by spy who, when he was caught, insisted he was looking out for two countries.Tue, 02 Dec 2014 21:18:00 +0000Alan Cheuse66285 at http://wcbe.org'Lila' Sets The Stage For Marilynn Robinson's Earlier Workshttp://wcbe.org/post/lila-sets-stage-marilynn-robinsons-earlier-works
<div class="fullattribution">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.<img src="http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Lila%27+Sets+The+Stage+For+Marilynn+Robinson%27s+Earlier+Works&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDA4NjIwNTkwMDEzMjI4NDY0MjY4ZTBlNA004)"/></div><p>Mon, 20 Oct 2014 20:24:00 +0000Alan Cheuse64343 at http://wcbe.orgMartin Amis' 'Zone Of Interest' Is An Electrically Powerful Holocaust Novelhttp://wcbe.org/post/martin-amis-zone-interest-electrically-powerful-holocaust-novel
When I picked up Martin Amis' new novel, <em>The </em><em>Zone of Interest,</em> it felt as though I had touched a third rail, so powerful and electric is the experience of reading it.Wed, 17 Sep 2014 22:48:00 +0000Alan Cheuse62934 at http://wcbe.orgBook Review: 'Lovely, Dark, Deep'http://wcbe.org/post/book-review-lovely-dark-deep
<div class="fullattribution">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.<img src="http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Book+Review%3A+%27Lovely%2C+Dark%2C+Deep%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxODMzOTc3MDEzMjAzMzEyMDA3Njc1Nw004)"/></div><p>Transcript <p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>Joyce Carol Oates is a famously prolific writer and sure enough she has a new book out.Tue, 16 Sep 2014 20:19:00 +0000Alan Cheuse62871 at http://wcbe.orgBook Review: 'Angels Make Their Hope Here'http://wcbe.org/post/book-review-angels-make-their-hope-here
Transcript <p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDRED. I'm Audie Cornish.<p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>And I'm Robert Siegel. Now to 19th-century New Jersey and a new novel. It set among unusually tolerant people. A racially mixed community that offers refuge to independent souls. Alan Cheuse has this review of the novel "Angels Make Their Hope Here" by Breena Clarke.<p>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: Clarke calls her Jersey Shangri-La, Russell’s Knob. Where a black community elder named Duncan Smoot heads a couple of families.Tue, 22 Jul 2014 21:47:00 +0000Alan Cheuse59970 at http://wcbe.org'Warburg' Struggles For Love And Justice In Wartime Romehttp://wcbe.org/post/book-review-warburg-rome
James Carroll, who served as a Catholic priest before his literary ambitions led him to go secular, has gathered together his knowledge of church history and his mature powers as a novelist to create <em>Warburg in Rome</em>, his most splendid work of fiction to date.<p>Though the novel never really settles squarely as either historical fiction or historical thriller, it offers the best of both worlds.Fri, 27 Jun 2014 20:07:00 +0000Alan Cheuse58550 at http://wcbe.org'Warburg' Struggles For Love And Justice In Wartime RomeMcMurtry Takes Aim At A Legend In 'Last Kind Words Saloon'http://wcbe.org/post/mcmurtry-takes-aim-legend-last-kind-words-saloon
In a prefatory note to <em>The Last Kind Words Saloon</em>, his first novel in five years, Western writer supreme Larry McMurtry states that he wants to create a "ballad in prose." And he borrows a line from great moviemaker John Ford: "When legend becomes fact, print the legend."<p>Set in the autumn of the 19th century, mainly in Texas, Colorado, and Arizona, McMurtry's slender book contains a multitude of familiar and unfamiliar Western characters, including some who do belong to legend as well as history: part-time lawman Wyatt Earp and gun-toting dentist Doc Holliday, back together again.Tue, 27 May 2014 21:05:00 +0000Alan Cheuse56761 at http://wcbe.orgHistorical Trauma Makes For Thrilling Fiction In 'Officer And A Spy'http://wcbe.org/post/historical-trauma-makes-thrilling-fiction-officer-and-spy
For the historical novelist, the past sometimes seems like one great filing cabinet of material that may lend itself to successful novelization. And in the case of France's so-called "Belle Epoque," the gifted English writer Robert Harris seems to have opened the right drawer. His latest novel, <em>An Officer and a Spy</em>, is set during this period of peace and prosperity between the end of the Franco-Prussian war and the lead-up to the First World War.Fri, 31 Jan 2014 14:18:20 +0000Alan Cheuse50389 at http://wcbe.orgHistorical Trauma Makes For Thrilling Fiction In 'Officer And A Spy'Written In Secret Behind The Iron Curtain, 'Corpse' Is Revivedhttp://wcbe.org/post/written-secret-behind-iron-curtain-corpse-revived
Transcript <p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>The fiction work of Soviet era writer Zigizmund Krzhizhanovsky never saw the light of day in his own time. He was known mostly as a theater, music and literally critic, but he also wrote fables and fiction for more than 20 years, none of which appeared in print until 1989. Well, a new volume of that work called "Autobiography of a Corpse" has just come out here in the U.S.Wed, 25 Dec 2013 22:27:00 +0000Alan Cheuse48649 at http://wcbe.orgA Coming Of Age Story For The (Ice) Ageshttp://wcbe.org/post/coming-age-story-ice-ages
Transcript <p>MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: <p>From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.<p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>And I'm Robert Siegel. A new novel explores life on Earth tens of thousands of years ago. It's called "Shaman" by science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson. Our reviewer, Alan Cheuse, says it's worthy of a spot on the bookshelf between "The Inheritors" and "The Clan Of The Cave Bear."<p>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: Robinson has chosen a broad and effective means for including everything that he knows and everything he imagines about the world of 30,000 B.C.Wed, 09 Oct 2013 21:37:00 +0000Alan Cheuse44584 at http://wcbe.orgBook Review: 'Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish'http://wcbe.org/post/book-review-love-dishonor-marry-die-cherish-perish
Transcript <p>MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: <p>The writer and humorist David Rakoff died last year at the age of 47 of cancer. He left behind his final work: a brief novel in verse with the long title "Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish." It was published today, and Alan Cheuse has this review.<p>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: This short but abundantly populated novel in verse had quite an effect on me. It's all I can do to write a novel in prose, but a novel in rhyming couplets with a story that keeps my attention and exudes beauty and the suffering attendant upon a human predicament?Wed, 17 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000Alan Cheuse39498 at http://wcbe.orgBook Review: 'Skinner'http://wcbe.org/post/book-review-skinner
Transcript <p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.<p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>And I'm Audie Cornish.<p>Charlie Huston is a Los Angeles-based writer known for his superhero comic books and crime novels. Alan Cheuse couldn't wait to get his hands on Huston's latest thriller called "Skinner." Here's his review.<p>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: Charlie Huston's 2010 novel "Sleepless" bowled me over. What a powerful combination of combustible plot and fiery language. So here's his new novel in my hands. It's called "Skinner," and it's a huge letdown.Mon, 08 Jul 2013 20:15:00 +0000Alan Cheuse38949 at http://wcbe.orgBook Review: 'The Mehlis Report'http://wcbe.org/post/book-review-mehlis-report
Transcript <p>ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: <p>From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.<p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>And I'm Audie Cornish.<p>Our book reviewer Alan Cheuse is excited to introduce the work of Rabee Jaber. He lives in Lebanon, and his novel "The Mehlis Report" takes place there. In Beirut, the characters await the real Mehlis report, which analyzed the watershed moment in Lebanon, the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.<p>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: First of all, this novel is a bittersweet love song to Beirut.Mon, 01 Jul 2013 20:44:00 +0000Alan Cheuse38570 at http://wcbe.orgBook Review: 'Submergence'http://wcbe.org/post/book-review-submergence
Transcript <p>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: <p>The writer J.M. Ledgard leads multiple lives. He's a journalist and covers East Africa for the Economist, but Ledgard is also a novelist.Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:38:00 +0000Alan Cheuse33540 at http://wcbe.org